Tuesday, December 22, 2009

I Fixed My Favorite Peanut Butter Cookies

I have a love affair with peanut butter. Chunky, creamy, white chocolate, or maple-flavored — it's all equally magical in my eyes (or well, mouth). I could eat jars at a time, but I know better. A little good fat is a good thing, but too much of a good thing can be bad. That's why I love Fran Costigan's recipe for "I Fixed My Favorite Peanut Butter Cookies" (yes, that's the actual name) from More Great Good Dairy-Free Desserts Naturally:

I must admit that I was first drawn to the recipe's name. Any time a recipe title includes a verb, adjective, and noun, that's a beautiful thing. But after reading Costigan's ingredient list, I knew these may become my new favorite peanut butter cookies.

Why? Because they're actually pretty healthy! Costigan's book features recipes made with whole wheat pastry flour, natural sweeteners, and as little oil as possible. Most peanut butter cookies are loaded with margarine, but Costigan reasons that PB already contains plenty of good fat to make a soft and chewy cookie. Why add more? The entire recipe only calls for three tablespoons of canola oil and a half-cup of creamy peanut butter. Dispersed between all the cookies, that's certainly not enough good fat to become a bad thing.

The result was a melt-in-your-mouth, salty-sweet peanut butter cookie that would rival any non-vegan version I loved when I was a kid. I brought a batch to work today and they were all gobbled up before noon.

Costigan's book is yet another amazing title from the Book Publishing Company in Summertown, Tennessee. Though this is the first recipe I've tried, I have many more on my to-make-soon list — Carob German Not Chocolate Cake, Honey-Free Better Baklava, Peanut Butter Mousse in Chocolate Candy Cups, and so much more. Stay tuned. And check out the book.

Bianca wow! These look gorgeous. I'm like you - peanut butter can do no wrong in my eyes...although my most common way to eat it is by the spoonful straight out of the jar! Mmmm! I need to make some pb cookies, they look fabulous.

When I was a kid, in the Paleozoic Era, Skippy always had their cookie recipe on the jar label, and I loved 'em. Yours look so delicious, and I like how you stacked them for the picture. Ah yes, we all have visions of your cookbook dancing in our heads!

i love the idea of a pb cookie with the main fat/star of the show being the pb! it always irritated me that it was more of a butter cookie than a PEANUT butter cookie. i'll have to check out that cook book.

these cookies look awesome. we've been going vegan cookie crazy over the last couple of weeks - baking a new batch almost every day. (we're not eating them all on our own, i swear.) we're never quite happy with the peanut butter cookies, though. we're gonna have to get our hands on this book!